JYMIE you are just so creative. I always take a look at your website to get some new ideas and this add is just amazing. Here is the craigslist add I use. It's pretty clean and I just use a free template online. https://post.craigslist.org/manage/2844025103

Any ideas or tips for creating a better add would help? Also, from your expereince using craigslist what heading best works for you when posting your add?

avetslawncare

02-21-2012, 12:03 PM

How do you include a picture on craigslist?

Steve

02-21-2012, 02:39 PM

Jymie,

Very nice work! Have you found any elements with your craigslist marketing that seem to work better than others? For instance, do coupons attract new customers or are they rarely redeemed?

jymie

02-21-2012, 02:53 PM

I get a lot of inquiries from Craigslist, many are just tire kickers, but I find I get good business from there. I rarely get any coupons back, but, I think they do help in the ad.

Groundscrew...that link is to your personal page and we cannot get to it.

avetslawncare...to post a pic on Craigslist, when you make your advertisement on your computer, save it to a photo host site such as imagecoast or photobucket, it will give you a URL location of the picture, copy and paste it onto notepad for use on Craigslist, then go make your post on Craigslist. To make the picture ad on the post, you must use the following code:

< img src="insert here the image URL of your pic">

important to note, that I added a space just before img so that the code would stay so you can see it. You have to remove the space between < and img for the code to work.

Also make sure the quotations are in place. All the black parts of the code must remain.

Now if you wanted to make that picture clickable, meaning if they click on it, they can go to your website, you can use this code:

I placed a space after both of the < so you need to remove that space for it to work.

yourscape

02-22-2012, 06:24 AM

I get a lot of inquiries from Craigslist, many are just tire kickers, but I find I get good business from there. I rarely get any coupons back, but, I think they do help in the ad.

Groundscrew...that link is to your personal page and we cannot get to it.

avetslawncare...to post a pic on Craigslist, when you make your advertisement on your computer, save it to a photo host site such as imagecoast or photobucket, it will give you a URL location of the picture, copy and paste it onto notepad for use on Craigslist, then go make your post on Craigslist. To make the picture ad on the post, you must use the following code:

< img src="insert here the image URL of your pic">

important to note, that I added a space just before img so that the code would stay so you can see it. You have to remove the space between < and img for the code to work.

Also make sure the quotations are in place. All the black parts of the code must remain.

Now if you wanted to make that picture clickable, meaning if they click on it, they can go to your website, you can use this code:

Spring time is a time when you want to cleanup all those annoying leaves from your landscaping beds. Its also time to have the bushes trimmed and Mulch laid down in the beds to spruce them up. Let us weed them and lay down new mulch to really make them pop! We service Hamburg, Orchard Park, Derby, Lakeview, East Aurora, Blasdell, Lackawanna, Eden, West Seneca and Elma.

Your title in that ad is Spring Cleanup (Hamburg and surrounding towns)

How important in the ad is it to include key words like lawn care cleanup? Or yard cleanup?

Does it matter much?

avetslawncare

03-07-2012, 12:56 AM

Business is booming and this is my first season, this is what I have done:

Added myself to googlemaps (lots of business)
designed a webpage with wix.....got free fb and google advertising
Posted an ad on craigslist once every couple of days (one post got me 5 customers -
1 is a one time deal, $635.....150 supplies.....
2 more are full-time bi-weekly customers, 45.00 a cut.
1 more is a one time deal, 318.00....250.00 profit
1 other turned to be nothing

Check out my website, it is working for me. I know it is not season yet but the weather in SC has been kinda warm and it is picking up, I am almost afraid the business is growing a bit too fast.

www.avetslawncare.com

by the way, I had a picture of a job i did on craigslist with a lot of mulch, which helped.

I also have a catchy company name that sets me apart from others.

No flyers or anything like that, just simple marketing on the internet and lots of before & after pictures.

in the past 2 weeks I have been getting an average of 1 or 2 new customers a day and also got a 4100 job for a church, 1800 being supplies.

Also, thanks for the advice with queensborrow, love their stuff and great deals.

jymie

03-07-2012, 03:02 PM

Very nice!

Your title in that ad is

How important in the ad is it to include key words like lawn care cleanup? Or yard cleanup?

Does it matter much?

Its very key. In the text area of the ad just below, you have to use your business keywords to make the ad searchable. Picture ads are not searchable. I use all our services, and every town along with the zip code.

Chaz

03-08-2012, 12:13 AM

I have made a craigslist ad and made uploaded pics and all i had created the posting and all but it doesn't even show up on craigslist? I don't understand why it does this. i just renewed it and it still isn't showing up.

SECTLANDSCAPING

03-08-2012, 01:07 AM

Thats a nice ad jymie.

chaz, your ad is ghosted.

I just stopped using picture ads. I was having them deleted as spam after 1-3 days. So now Im trying the cheesy ads everyone else is using.

I tried getting help from CL but they blamed the image ad, html, image to large, keywords, me posting once or twice every week or so.

Meanwhile the same people run the same ad everyday in multiple categories. It beats me! I never had a problem till last fall with my ads being deleted. Then they started flagging me and ghosting my ads. I was never a big CL advertiser besides the beginning of each season. Then after that I post a few a month.

jymie

03-08-2012, 02:06 AM

I have made a craigslist ad and made uploaded pics and all i had created the posting and all but it doesn't even show up on craigslist? I don't understand why it does this. i just renewed it and it still isn't showing up.

To much html is a no no on Craigslist. If you do a picture ad, you need to host the pic on a web host like photobucket or image coast and use the script to put it in the ad. Also remember to type your keywords separate from the picture ad. If you just post a picture ad, it wont be searchable and you will not be able to find your ad.

i have all of the pictures hosted on imageshack, and it never began to show up even when i first posted before anyone could have a chance to flag it

jymie

03-09-2012, 09:02 AM

i have all of the pictures hosted on imageshack, and it never began to show up even when i first posted before anyone could have a chance to flag it

What section are you posting it to? Farm & Garden or Household under the services section? Did you get an email from Craigslist with a link to your ad?

jymie

03-09-2012, 11:53 AM

Heres another ad we put on Craigslist. The goal is to eventually have an ad for each of our services.

http://buffalo.craigslist.org/hss/2893126048.html

Sure mulch makes your landscape more beautiful, but did you know that mulch also provides many benefits?

* Prevents/Reduces weed growth.
* Prevents water loss from soil.
* Improves absorption of water into soil, preventing soil surface crusting.
* Maintains healthy landscape plants.
* Mulches can add to the beauty of the landscape by providing a color & interesting texture to the surface.
* Mulch prevents soil splashing, which not only stops erosion but keeps soil-borne diseases from splashing up onto plants.
* Mulches keep the soil cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, thus maintaining a more even soil temperature.

Whether you are renewing an existing bed or want to add a new bed to your yard, give us a call for a free estimate or send us an e-mail